


How Harry Became an Avenger

by molmcmahon



Series: Harry Potter and the Avengers [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Master of Death Harry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-07
Updated: 2013-01-16
Packaged: 2017-11-24 02:11:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 19,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/629157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/molmcmahon/pseuds/molmcmahon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the war, Harry is working as a healer. He's been working in St.Mungo's for 7 years now and needs a change of scenery. The place/choice he picks has some pretty interesting consequences and some intriguing neighbors.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or the Avengers. JK Rowling and Marvel owns them.
> 
> Also, italics are Harry's thoughts.

St. Mungo's was as busy as ever. Everyone was coming in for everything from spell damage to illness. As it was 7 years after the big war with Voldemort, there were no war wounds, but still, there were very strenuous wounds. It was the night of the full moon, so there were some werewolves coming in for the Wolfsbane potion that Snape had published the formula for during the war. Now, nearly every hospital carried it, making things a lot easier for werewolves, so there were more people than usual.

"Oh Merlin, I need a couple years of some kind of vacation," Harry muttered under his breath.

He was currently on rounds as the most popular healer at the hospital. He had trained as a healer for a couple of years under the best healer in Britain, right after taking the training to be an auror. He just hadn't felt like chasing more bad wizards; he had enough of being hunted and training to take down Voldemort. He would of course help out the aurors if they needed him or extra help(his Saving People thing, as Hermione said), but these days, it was just regular boring wizarding criminals. So, he started to train as a healer because he had been interested in what Hermione had done during that extended camping trip.

He hadn't taken a vacation after the war, but signed right up as a healer in training. 

When he had taken charge of the Elder Wand right after he killed Voldemort, he had passed out, which had worried his friends and family alike. He had apparently been asleep for a week after that. When he woke up, he had discovered that he was taller, now 6'2''... He had been stumped about that. It seems that the Hallows really liked him as the Master of Death and wanted him to be in good health. The Elder Wand had given him a big boost in his magic, well technically they all did.

Which, he thought, could be attributed to holding and owning the three Hallows. Along with his added height and power and body structure and immortality, he was more powerful than most wizards alive. He had figured that out when he was chasing some death eaters that had fled before the aurors could corral them all after the battle of Hogwarts. One of them had shot a killing curse at him and he had been too tired and too slow to evade it. Then 10 minutes later, when he had opened his eyes, he had realized that he hadn't died. The curse had hit him, but hadn't effected him. It had definitely hurt a lot, though. Harry hadn't told his friends about his immortality but they would find out in a couple of years when he hadn't aged.

Harry had been interested to learn that he was one of the very few who could do wandless magic. He had discovered that owning the hallows gave him that ability. Harry had discreetly checked, or to be precise, asked Hermione to look into it, and yes, it was very rare.

He had tried to leave the Resurrection Stone in the forest just before Voldemort had shot an AK at him(again), but it just found its way back. The Hallows just did not leave him. And well, he would not give the invisibility cloak away. It was too useful to sneak around for pranks and to avoid fans and well wishers and of course, reporters. They reported on anything about him, his daily errands, dates(which were unsuccessful), practically everything in his life got reported on. It was like his school years, but a lot worse. It had gotten to the point of Harry not being able to work a lot and having to come in under the cloak. Not that he played any pranks at St. Mungo's, or anywhere else. Nope, not Harry Potter. No, those two incidents at the Ministry and at Hogwarts were **not** his fault.

“Harry!”

Harry turned around and saw Hermione and Ron coming up toward him. Hermione was very pregnant with their second kid. They were still the best of friends, even when Harry and Ginny broke up at the end of the war(they decided that they were better off as friends, especially since, Harry kind of thought of her as a sister). And, even occasionally Draco met up with them and had dinner every week. Harry and Draco had become friends at the end of the war and had gotten along very well since then.

“Hey, Harry, do you want to go out for dinner?” asked Ron. Since the war he had become captain of the Chudley Cannons and they had done quite good ever since. Hermione had of course, become the head of the Magical Creatures department at the ministry and challenged any laws that she thought were inhumane and awful. Werewolves and other magical creatures had many more rights now than they had before she took that job.

“Sure. Let me just sign out. I was just about done anyway.” Ron and Hermione were alone, but would usually leave their one kid home with Arthur and Molly when these dinner dates would come around.

“I think I will join you tonight at Hogwarts,” Ron said.

Harry had taken to spending a night or two a month in his animagus form, just loping around the forest and occasionally chatting with the centaurs. And, Harry had visited the children's ward in St. Mungos a couple of times after a shift in his lion form, saying hi to the children. They loved it. Among training for the war, himself, Hermione and Ron and eventually Draco and Neville and Luna, had learned to shift forms and become animagi. It had been an important thing for the six of them but especially for Harry, since his father, and godfather were animagi.

“The Hog's Head alright with you, Harry?”

“Yep, Aberfourth can keep the reporters at bay.”

Hermione and Ron chuckled. They all had reporters following them, though Harry more than them. They walked out of St. Mungo's and instantly shivered from the cold. It was chilly out, so Harry instantly threw a warming charm at his two friends and one on himself. They all sighed in relief at being warmer in this cold weather. The three of them strolled to the apparition point around the corner and disapparated on the spot.

 

* * *

 

 

 

“I'm thinking of going to visit the States for a couple of years,” Harry said. “Lie low from reporters.”

Harry had told Ron and Hermione about his need for a vacation before, but not his intended destination.

“Oh, that sounds like fun” Hermione commented, “You would need an international portkey for that.”

“I know, I already got one.” Harry replied.

“What would you do?” Ron asked.

“I've needed a break from everything for a couple of years now. I would probably tour the west coast and then possibly settle somewhere for a couple years,” Harry replied. “But, knowing myself and the past couple of years, anything could happen.”

“Ha, that's certainly true, Harry,” Hermione said, smiling.

“I've quit from work. Oddly enough, the senior most healers kicked me out, saying 'you need a vacation'. But, then again, I could certainly apparate back in a snap if there was an emergency. I want to travel the world for now.” _  
_

“Well, I think it's a good idea,” Hermione commented.

“When are you planning on leaving?” Ron said.

“I think tomorrow in the early morning. I have done all the packing that I need. At least after this weekend. Okay, well I should get home; it's getting late. Ron, you coming?”

“Sure, just a minute.”

Ron, Hermione and Harry walked out of the Hog's Head. Harry and Ron said good bye to Hermione, who was going to make sure Fred and George weren't already teaching her daughter the ways of tricksters. She disapparated with a crack. Harry and Ron walked a few minutes in companionable silence and then disapparated a short ways off the main road.

The two friends arrived at Hogwarts at 10:00pm. Professor McGonagall who was still the headmistress met them at the entrance hall.

The students were already in bed, so they didn't have to worry. This time, Ron would be joining them. _It's usually just me. It'll be fun with Ron._ Harry had started to do this every once in a while during the end of the war, just to relax and not have to worry during those couple hours.

Harry and Ron started to shift at the same time. Harry always had an easy time shifting into his lion form, even before getting a power boost. He flexed his legs and muscles and shook out, like a wet dog. It took him a minute or two to shift shapes into the big lion that was his animagus form. _Luckily,_ _I guess the Master of Death is meant to be able to be flexible._ Meanwhile, Ron had shifted into his fox form, Redtail. Harry loved shifting shapes and loved running and roaring to scare the pants off of unsuspecting people. That must have been the trickster in him.

 _I'll probably be a little sore, since it's been a while. But it will be worth it; I love running on four legs instead of two. I don't get many chances to shift shape and just take off._ Harry proceeded to roar at the Forbidden Forest. He saw some threstrals take off; they knew to expect a tabby cat, a fox (occasionally) and a lion that spent the night in the forest occasionally.Harry went chasing after Ron, after the two were done shifting shape.

The two of them played into the night and the morning. Later, after their adventures, Harry wasn't exhausted at all, tired yes, but not exhausted; the two animagi did not have trouble shifting back. The two of them tromped back to Hogwarts to their quarter and Ron and Harry had guest rooms available to use. Harry promptly went to bed and Ron most likely did the same.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, Harry went down to the Great Hall for breakfast. He saw Ron and Hermione having breakfast at the professors table, joining Neville. “Good morning. How was last night?” Hermione asked.

“It was very fun.” Ron and Harry, agreed.

“Well, I would have joined you guys if I wasn't pregnant,” Hermione said.

“Understandable,” Harry teased. “Guys, I hope to have maybe a year or two for vacation. I was thinking of starting a bakery wherever I settle down.”

“Why a bakery?” Ron asked.

“Well, if you think about my childhood”- at that Ron and Hermione looked unhappy- “I learned to cook and cook well. I thought to myself, why not bake pastries and possibly breakfast?” _Not that the Dursley's would admit that I was a good cook, but he saw their looks._

“You should not have had to learn to cook at such as a young age. I will never forgive myself for that, leaving you to whatever Dumbledore had cooked up for you.” Ron complained.

“Yep, the past is the past. I have gotten over my non-existent childhood. Hakuna Matata,” Hermione giggled at that, but Ron looked confused. Harry had listened to the Dursley's with a pair of Fred and George's extendable ears and they had surprisingly enjoyed his cooking throughout the years, though they did not tell Harry at all.

The four of the chatted and had breakfast for 15 more minutes and then Harry went to finish packing and get all of his stuff. He had brought his stuff the day before in preparation for leaving today, so he did not have to go back to his apartment. After he was finished packing, he went downstairs to the Great Hall and said goodbye to his friends. He was off to visit new places!

 

* * *

 

 

Four Months Later

Harry had eventually settled in the Los Angeles area in California, on the coast near Malibu. Apparently, Los Angeles did not have a big wizarding population in and around it. Harry preferred to be anonymous; no reporters that knew about him. He had taken to flying in his other form, the red-tailed hawk, around LA and his home just to get a good feel for it. Harry had chosen to tour LA in one of his animagus forms instead of on a broomstick, just for the sheer easiness of it and that he would not have to put a disillusionment charm on himself. He of course loved the ocean and soaring on a breeze, just like on a broom or on Buckbeak. The lone wizard had brought nearly everything, from his broomstick to his cloak and of course, his holly wand and the elder wand, plus a potion making kit.

Harry had bought a little bakery in Malibu, “Marauder Bakery,” he called it and it had an apartment on the second floor, which he also bought. Along the way, people started to really enjoy his pastries and cookies. Harry was pestered to make coffee, so he made specialty coffee. It was a small bakery, but with word of mouth, people became repeat customers and he was able to recognize most of them. He even hired two assistants to work the register. During the first week, when he was still settling in, he had warded his bakery and apartment. There were no more Death Eaters to watch out for, but better to be safe than sorry, as Harry's auror trainers had said.

One of his newer repeat customers was Pepper Potts, who Harry had learned was assistant to the famous Tony Stark. She loved the pastries and came to the bakery every morning, albeit early. Harry always had pastries for her waiting.

 

* * *

 

 

 

“Pepper, nice to see you,” Harry said.

“Hi, Harry. Long time no see. How are you?” Pepper asked.

“I'm good. And you? You usually come in the morning, not the afternoon. Something wrong?”

“Well, I'm okay, busy, but okay.” Harry took one look at the man coming in behind her and his healer instincts went off and went right to him, slipping an arm around his waist. “Tony, you look exhausted. Come on, let's get you upstairs.”

“Harry, I am not exhausted. I am just tired”--

“You are not just tired. You stayed up until 4am and then went to two board meetings,” Pepper said, exasperated. “Including those past couple of nights, you have not been sleeping.”

“But, I was rebuilding one of my cars and tinkering and updating with Dummy. I was being productive.”

“Well, in any case, upstairs you go.” and with that Harry brought Pepper and Tony upstairs. One to the guest bedroom and one to the kitchen.

“There's coffee and leftovers from this morning in the kitchen for you, Pepper,” Harry called out.

“Thanks, Harry.”

“Tony, you have to go to Las Vegas and then Afghanistan in the next few days. You need your sleep,” Harry commented.

“I know. I've just been working through updates these past few days. I tend to tune out everything else when I do updates and ... Jarvis said the same thing,” Tony sleepily yawned out.

“Go to bed,” Harry said, amused, “you're dead on your feet”.

Once Harry made sure that Tony was in bed, and that did not take long at all- he was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow- he made his way into the kitchen.

“So, you must be worried about him going.”

“I hope you don't mean Las Vegas. But, yes, I am a little worried about him. It's a war zone. He should not have to go over there to just demonstrate the newest weapon. Rhodey could do it without him,” Pepper said.

“Pepper, he will be fine. He will have the entire US Military around him and Rhodey said that he would be with him every step of the way. Rhodey even convinced Tony to wear a bullet proof vest in Afghanistan.”

 _If something happens, I'll go._ Harry had yet to tell either Pepper or Tony that little detail: he was a wizard. They had been curious about his past, but Harry was close-lipped on that. Harry had thought that Tony would have been more than curious, he had probably asked Jarvis to run a background check, or maybe Pepper did. Although, nothing past four months ago would have come up. He wouldn't have put it past Pepper to do that. He did trust them, but i _f something does happen, I will pull out my magic, whether for healing or destruction, I don't know, but no one messes with my friends or loved ones without getting away with it._ He still used his magic, but very discretely.

“Besides, Obediah encouraged it and well, I suppose they think it would be good for sales.”

“Well, I had better get back to work. Will you drive Tony back when he wakes up?” Pepper asked, glancing at the hallway that led to the stairs.

“Of course, Pepper. I will be here for the foreseen future.” Harry replied teasingly, “I don't have anything in my social calendar.”

 


	3. Chapter 3

Harry was in the midst of getting ready for the morning, which consisted of opening and getting the bakery ready, when his cell phone rang. “Harry! Tony was kidnapped!” Pepper said, in a shaky and worried voice.

“Pepper, calm down. What happened?” Harry asked in stable, calm voice.

“Rhodey called me yesterday evening. His convoy was blown up and there were no survivors. Tony was nowhere to be seen. Oh, I should have known to argue more with him.”

“It is not your fault that you didn't,” Harry commented.

“I will leave it to the military to find him.” _But, if they take too long, then I_ _ **am**_ _apparating there. “_ We just have to hope that they find him quickly enough. Did the terrorists send some kind of ransom or anything of that sort?”

“They did. I watched it and Tony did not look good at all.”

“Well, we should just hope for the best. If not, I am getting on one of the search helicopters.”

 

* * *

 

More than two and a half months passed without any word from Rhodey or the military on the whereabouts of the inventor. No big explosions either, which knowing Tony were inevitable when or if he escaped without being rescued first by the military. _I am not leaving him alone in the hands of terrorists for more than that. I am leaving this morning in order to have a lot of time to search._

Harry proceeded to grab his ready bag, which contained his two wands, invisibility cloak and some potions that would come in handy when he found Tony. Then without a sound, he disapparated and appeared in the mansion.

“ _Sir, may I ask how you appeared here? Are you a mutant, like Professor Xavier and the X Men?”_

 _“_ Oh, Jarvis, right, I am here to let Pepper know that I'm going to search for Tony. I'm a wizard, but if you don't need to know the full details about how I appeared here right now, I will tell both Pepper and Tony when we get him back home. There are others that can do what I did, but don't worry about security risks for Tony or Pepper; I put up wards that would alert me.”

“ _Yes, sir. Should I be aware of any risks?_ ”

“No, well, you will hear the full story when I retrieve Tony from whatever hellhole that he is in. But, no, there are no security risks.”

“ _Well, it has been two months and 3 weeks. Best hurry.”_

 _“_ Yes, I well know how long it's been. The military should have found him... _maybe they have a wizard working with them, that would certainly explain the lack of news..._ I will be able to find him within a day or two.”

“Pepper!”

“Harry, how did you get here? I don't see a car.”

“Well, don't freak out, but if you can hold back your questions until I get back, then I will tell both of you.”

“How are you planning on getting to Afghanistan? Oh, you could join Rhodey's search team. I think he is planning on going tomorrow.”

“My plan was just to pop over there and look for him, using some skills of my own. Then, probably rendezvous with the search teams.” Pepper looked intrigued at the mention of his past.

“Oh, what kind of skills? The kind of skills that got you here without a car?”

 _Hmm, what to tell her?_ “My last job was a,- _what do muggles call healers, oh yes-_ a doctor and soldier and yes they did get me here without a car,” Harry said, “I'm able to go long distances without conventional transportation.” _I will leave it at that until, I suppose I should tell Pepper and Tony about my past, but only when we find him. I should have thought to put a tracking charm on him. I will do that when we find him._

 _“_ Pepper, I can use Stark Tower as a rest stop in my travel? Also could you tell Rhodey to expect me in the next few days?”

“Why do you ask? But yes, of course you can. I will call Rhodey after we finish talking.”

“ _I've already taken note of your future arrival there, Harry and will allow you entry.”_

 _“_ Thanks, Jarvis.”

“I need some place to space out my transportation. Like, not having a nonstop flight, but in my terms.”

“Yes, you can use the penthouse.”

“That's fine. I just need a place to stop on the way.”

 _“_ Okay, I will contact Rhodey to let him know to be expecting you. What will you do with the bakery?”

“I already just told the head chef and boss to not expect me for a couple of days.”

“Okay, well I should go and make arrangements. Bye Harry.” 

"Bye Pepper.”

Harry walked out of the mansion and promptly disapparated and apparated to New York. He appeared in Stark Tower, on the balcony. It was late and on the weekend, so there weren't many people or workers around to see. Then Harry apparated to his apartment in London, and then all the way to Afghanistan, roughly to where Rhodey had said the caravan had gotten bombed.

Harry instantly cast a disillusionment spell on himself. He didn't want any unnecessary attention on himself. Then, he drew his holly wand and cast a point me spell that would direct him toward Stark. Once he found the direction, he shifted into his hawk form, carrying his bag in his beak and took off in that direction.

It took a couple of hours of following the strand of magic that would lead him to Tony, but it did pay off. He saw him walking north, well walking was a bit of an overstatement, he was mostly trudging and limping over the sand, but that was definitely the inventor. Harry scanned the landscape around searching for anyone else, but it was only Tony. He was over a half mile out, so Harry shifted back to his human form and walked toward him. He was bloody and dirty and he looked exhausted and once Harry got a look into his eyes, haunted.

“Tony!”

“Harry?”

“Yep, it's me.”

Tony proceeded to walk right up to Harry and collapse at the wizard's feet. Harry gently pulled him into his arms and started looking him over for injuries. Harry cast a subtle cooling charm to cool him off and Tony looked a little startled when the cooling charm took effect. _He must have been wandering for more than a couple hours, looking for the search teams._ “Harry, how... how did you get here? Suddenly you appeared out of...” Tony murmured. “Hush, let me tend to your injuries and then I said that I would bring you to the rescue team. --Harry wouldn't apparate with Tony in this condition-- Then, when we are back in the US, I will tell both you and Pepper about myself. I know you have questions. Before that, however, you should probably tell me what happened.”

“Okay. My arm is sprained.”

“Yes, I can see that.” Harry brought out a bottle of water and opened the lid, “Here, you must be parched.”

Tony grinned and than drank most of the bottle.

“Tony, do you trust me?”

“Well, since you are not a terrorist and you came to get me, I think I can trust you.”

Harry smiled, “Even with you knowing me for those two months before this shit happened?”

“Even with that,” Tony replied, yawning right afterward.

“You can rest now. I've got you. You're safe now.”

Even before Harry finished that sentence, Tony was asleep, slumped against his chest. The wizard transfigured one of the pieces of paper that he had brought just for this occasion into a cast for Tony's arm. He pulled out his holly wand, which he mainly used for healing, even in St. Mungos(he had wanted to conceal his ability to use wandless magic) and started the slow healing of the cuts and bruises. As he was looking him over for bruises and such, he spotted a circular device that glowed in a soft blue light, on his chest, right where his heart would be. _Hmm, I wonder what that glow emanating from his chest is. I'll ask later._

Harry cast a feather-light charm on the inventor and pulled out his broomstick from his bag(Harry luckily had Hermione charm one, like the one she used when they were traveling about looking for horcruxes) and scooped Tony fully into his arms. He got onto his broomstick and started flying west, toward where he thought the rescue team would be, having cast a point-me spell.

After roughly 15 minutes, he started hearing helicopters coming toward him. Harry figured it would be better to hide what he was to the general public, the military included, and landed and spelled his broom back to miniature size and put it back in his bag. They weren't flying really high to begin with, so that didn't take long at all. Tony was still fast asleep in his arms. _Though,_ _I suspect he'll hear the helicopters and wake up_. Harry was proved right and Tony woke up just as the helicopters appeared and landed. Harry let him down, but still stayed close.

“So the military found me. This is their idea of a search team. Ha! They didn't even find me, even when I rocketed out of there during the explosions. How did we get here though? I don't remember walking anywhere.”

“Explosions? I should have known. Tony Stark does not do anything quietly and apparently that applies to escaping captivity,” Harry chuckled, “I will explain everything when we get back and you are settled in again. I think Dummy, Jarvis, Pepper, and Rhodey miss you. If you are still tired, you could go back to sleep.”

“Sleep? In a helicopter? Are you kidding me?”

“Oh, right,” Harry chuckled, not used to not flying on a broom and using muggle means of transportation.

“Tony!”

“Hey Rhodey!”

Rhodey ran over and pulled Tony into a hug. “I'm glad that Harry found you. We've been looking a long time. How did you find him, Harry?”

“Trade secret, I'm afraid.” _Though perhaps telling Rhodey would be fine, he seems like he's a good friend of Tony's and Pepper. “_ On second thought, in the next couple of days, come over to the mansion and I'll tell you.”

“Okay. Sounds fine with me.”

“Can we go, now?” Tony asked.

“Sure, Tony. You okay?” Harry replied.

“Yeah, I'm okay. I just want to get out of the country and back home.”

“I understand. Let's go.” Harry and Rhodey both walked back to the helicopters, with Tony in between them.

 

* * *

 

 

 

During the flight back to the US and the Stark Industries airport, Tony slept and answered Rhodey's and Harry's questions about his captivity and Harry kept watch over him. He also extended his magic to completely heal Tony, who had a bruised rib or two. The military medic had been flummoxed to see that Tony was almost completely healed when they had gotten onboard. Harry learned that the device that was in Tony's chest was a miniaturized arc reactor and that it was keeping him alive. Harry also quietly cast a tracking charm on him; if he ever needed help, then Harry would be able to apparate directly to him.

 _Damn, I should have gone with him in the first place, or at least followed in my hawk form. He wouldn't have gotten kidnapped if I was there, but I suppose I can't predict everything._ Harry had been reluctant to meet up with Rhodey and the search team after rescuing Tony, but it seemed better. He wouldn't get any questions about how he found the inventor.

“We've landed!” Rhodey called out.

Harry walked out and peered out of the plane. Knowing Pepper, she would probably be right in the front with the car, waiting. Of course, there was an ambulance with paramedics standing by. _Tony won't like that._ Harry snorted at that. This was the first time that Harry had seen Stark Industries. “Okay, we're good to go.” The wizard waited for Tony and Rhodey to walk out of the plane than followed, predictably hearing Tony say he didn't need the gurney or the ride to the hospital.

“Tony! Harry!” Pepper called out.

“You look teary eyed. Few tears for your long lost boss?”  


“No, I hate job hunting.” Pepper said while smiling.

Tony, Pepper and Harry all got into the car and Happy started the car.

“Happy, I want a cheeseburger, and then---

“No, we are not stopping for that,” Pepper complained.

“Also, you know how I feel about that,” Harry muttered to Tony.

“Not that, call for a press conference,” Tony said.

“Okay then,” Pepper replied and started calling members of the press.

Tony now turned his attention to Harry. “You said you were going to tell me how you appeared out in the middle of the desert, right near me.”

“Well, I promised you guys that I would tell you about my past and about myself. How about after the press conference? I'll go make sure things are okay at my apartment and bakery and then I will make my way over to your home.”

“Sounds good.”

“You can drop me off at the conference.”

“How will you-- you'll probably use your ability?”

“Yep.”

* * *

 

 

They arrived at the building that would hold the press conference and got out of the car.

“I'll see you at your home in a couple hours,” Harry said.

Harry walked a block and then turned a corner into an alley way, watching Pepper and Tony all the way. He made sure that no one was paying attention to him and then apparated home to his apartment.

When he arrived home, he fire-called Ron and Hermione to let them know how he was doing. After that, he turned on the TV to catch the last few minutes of the press conference.

“...As of right now, the weapons section of Stark Industries is shut down.”

Hearing about what happened, Harry had figured and hoped that something like that would happen. _I approve, though the board members won't like that._

After that, he decided that he would bake for an hour, so that his employees wouldn't have a hard time opening up the day after tomorrow. Harry figured that he would stick around the mansion for a day, just in case.


	4. Chapter 4

After an hour and a half passed, he figured that he would fly in to the home; cheer up both Pepper and Tony and give them a bonus, to see him in his hawk form. He shifted into his hawk form and flew his way to the mansion on the coast. He flew onto the back balcony and landed on the railing. He thought that someone would notice him eventually.

After a 30 or so minutes, Pepper came to investigate. “You're beautiful. Jarvis told me that there was a hawk on the railing. I had to come see.” Harry gave an amused trill and ruffled his feathers and then flew up and shifted back.

Pepper's jaw dropped. “Harry?”

“Yeah, it's me. ”

“You said that you had some talent, but I didn't think it would be this!” Pepper exclaimed.

“Well, this is just some of it. There's more and you and Tony both wanted to hear about my past. You've earned my trust.”

“Oh, let me get Tony...

“Why don't I shift back to the hawk before you do that. It probably would amuse him and he needs that after what he went through.” Pepper went to go inside to fetch Tony.

“Okay. Tony!”

“Jarvis, would you open the door once I shift back, please?”

“ _Of course, sir and may I say that that is a very amazing talent and thanks for bringing Tony back.”_

 _“_ You're welcome.”

Harry promptly shifted into Firetail, his hawk form and flew inside and landed on the main couch and waited.

“Pepper, what are you calling about? I was in the middle of something...” Harry watched Tony and Pepper walk up the stairs and Tony come to a halt halfway to the couch, staring at the big bird of prey. Harry once again gave a loud kree and Tony jumped.

“Why is there a hawk on the couch?”

Ready for the talk that would follow, Harry shifted back to human. Again, his audience's jaws dropped.

“How?” Tony murmured.

“Well, I am a wizard,” Harry replied. “Wizards and witches live everywhere--”

“Then why haven't we met anyone or seen anything?” Pepper asked.

“Wizards have a law of secrecy that says we can't reveal anything about magic to outsiders; however, I chose to tell you.” _Statute of Secrecy be damned._

“Wizard? Like magic tricks?” Tony asked.

Harry proceeded to levitate the table. “Like that.”

Pepper and Tony stared slack jawed at the table and then turned and stared at Harry.

“Tricks? We call them spells and charms. It's how I found and healed you in Afghanistan. I can do much more than that, though.”

“Obviously. What, how did you change shape?” Tony asked.

“That was one of my animagus forms, not many wizards can do it, but I am one of the few. Wizards can take the shape of animals that they don't choose themselves.”

“You said one of your forms, how many do you have?” Pepper asked.

“I'm the only one that I know that has two forms. Usually wizards and witches only have one.” Harry said and then proceeded to transform into his lion form. He flexed his muscles and then padded toward Tony and Pepper.

“Harry, that's you, right?” Pepper murmured.

“Simba?” asked Tony, half teasingly. _Oh, now he comes up with a nickname, should have known._ Harry chuffed and sat down next to the couch, waiting for either Tony or Pepper to come over and make with the petting.

Both of them came towards Harry and stretched out their hands to pet him.

“Wow! You're a handsome lion,” Pepper commented, “Is that purring that I hear?”

Harry than shifted back to his human form and proceeded to fill both of them in on his past.


	5. Chapter 5

A day or two passed and many customers came in to the bakery. A week afterward, Harry was going over to Tony's place, bringing food for dinner. He apparated over and as always said hi to Jarvis.

“Hi Harry, how are you?”

“Pepper, I'm fine. The bakery is doing well. How is Tony?”

“He's doing well and currently in the workshop, if you wouldn't mind getting him out of there for dinner.”

“No, I'll go right down.”

Harry walked down the stairs to the workshop and stared around the large rooms. There were fancy cars and a couple of old cars and then lots of mechanical tools scattered around. And, was that a suit?

“Tony, is that suit much like the one that you made to escape?”

Right after Harry had spoken, he heard a thunk and a yelp.

“Oh, Harry, I didn't see you come down.”

“Yeah, I tend to walk quietly now. It's a habit from the war. Sorry about that.”

“Not a big deal. But, yes this suit is very much like the one that I made, but it's smoother and smaller.”

“I would imagine it would be more smooth.” Harry finally spotted Tony over by one of the desks in the middle. He looked tired, as if he hadn't gotten much sleep over the past couple of nights, which for him was normal, but he looked haunted and pained, too. “Dinner's upstairs, Tony. I'm waiting here until you come out of there.”

“You know me so well!” But, he did start up the stairs without Harry, anyway. Harry stayed downstairs to ask Jarvis, “Is Tony sleeping well?”

“ _Over the past couple of days, when he has gotten to bed, no. He's had nightmares.”_

_Oh, Tony._

_“_ Hmm, I think I can remedy that. I'll stick around after dinner and then shift into 'Simba' when Tony goes to sleep.” He had shifted into his lion form at St. Mungos right next to one of the children in the ward when she had just come back from surgery and she had gone to sleep nestled in his fur.

“ _Very well.”_

 _“_ Harry, you coming up?” Pepper yelled down.

“Yeah, coming.”

The three of them shared pizza and talked during dinner. Tony talked about the new 'suit' that he had made.

“Remember that day of the Firefighter's Benefit that I went to? I test flew the suit that day.”

“Oh? How did it go?” Harry asked.

“It flew really well. I did attempt to break the height record-- _I did tell you that it wouldn't work, sir—_ with a hitch, the suit iced up.”

“Oh, that's something to work on then; not right now, though,” Harry commented.

The three of the continued to chat for a couple of minutes after eating. Pepper left after that, saying that she was tired. After dinner, Tony went back downstairs to work on the suit, saying that he needed to work on flight.

“I'll stay for tonight, though in my lion form. Having at least a warm body could help with the nightmares.”

“Okay, Simba...”

 

 

 

“Jarvis, is he still in the workshop?”

“ _Yes, he is. I believe that he has fallen asleep, though and from what I can see and hear, he's having a nightmare.”_

Harry sighed, because that just couldn't be comfortable. There was no bed or cot down there, though there should be. _It would be just like him to fall asleep in the workshop._ He walked quickly down the stairs. “Tony?” Harry whispered questioningly. Tony had fallen asleep on the desk. Levitating him up the stairs and into his bed, Harry shifted into his lion form and went to sleep curled up next to him, soothing any nightmares that came up during the night.

That night, he stayed in the house, waking up around 10am. “ _Good morning sir. Tony is once again in the workshop.”_

 _“_ Morning, Jarvis.”

 

* * *

 

Having already baked for the morning and letting his employees handle the bakery for the morning, Harry had a free afternoon. He quickly apparated to the bakery to pick up breakfast for both Tony and himself and then back to the workshop. “Good morning, Tony. I brought some pastries to eat.”

“You are now my best friend.”

Chuckling, Harry and Tony both sat and ate breakfast. Afterwards, Tony went back to working on the suit, while the TV was on. Harry proceeded to pull out his broom cleaning kit and went to work, keeping Tony company.

As they worked through the afternoon, Harry helping Tony once he got done cleaning his broom, the news on the TV that Jarvis had turned on at Tony's request got increasingly violent. It had switched to news from the area where Tony was found and, yep, Tony looked like he wanted to fly over there and put a stop to people using his weapons.

“If you want to do that, I could come along.”

“How would you do that? In your hawk form?”

“No, I suspect I would be too slow as a hawk to keep up with you. That broom that I was just cleaning, is not just for usual broom activities. I can fly and race with it.”

“Okay. Just make sure you're hidden. I don't want you getting hurt.”

“You do know that if something happens, I'll be fine,” Harry commented.

“I know, but still...” Tony murmured.

Harry went to pack a small bag (putting in his invisibility cloak) and got his dragonhide armor on and then watched Tony get into his suit. “What kind of material is that?” Tony asked, curiously.

“Oh, it's made out of dragonhide. It's what most aurors use in Britain, and yes, you can look at it after we get back, just don't take it apart.” Harry chuckled at Tony's gleeful look. Once Tony finished getting the suit on, they both took off through the hole already left in the ceiling.

 

* * *

 

Once Tony and Harry got back to Afghanistan, Tony wrecked havoc and Harry gave out some medical supplies(muggle medical supplies, obviously, summoned in his bag, just to hide what he was doing) to the civilian refugees that they encountered. He subtly spelled a couple of shield charms around them while Tony attacked the gang members and Harry did a couple of blasting spells subtly. Afterward, they both flew home and went their separate ways, Tony to work on the suit and Harry back to his apartment.

A couple of days later, everything came to a head when one afternoon, Harry received a frantic phone call from Pepper.

“Harry, Obediah arranged everything!”

“Wait, what? What did he do?”

“He ordered Tony killed, but it didn't go according to his plan! And now, I was talking to Tony on the phone and the call just cut out, but I heard a high pitched beeping sound; it sounded like one of the Stark Industries gadgets that paralyze a person. I called Rhodey to check on him; he's closer. Could you go check on him, too?”

“Well, shit, I knew there was something off about him. Of course, I'll go. Is he at home?”

“Yes, he is.”

“Okay, I'm going.”

Harry homed in on the tracking spell that he had placed on Tony and apparated to his location, which turned out to be in the workshop. When he got there, he spotted Rhodey, who was already there beside the inventor, who looked very pale and angry and was minutely shuddering. Dummy was standing just a couple of feet away, looking very anxious for a robot. “Tony, you okay?”

“Hey Harry. Yeah, it'll just be a minute before I can get up.”

“Hi Rhodey. What happened?” Harry glanced toward Tony and than looked at Rhodey. Harry slowly walked over to Stark and then sat down in front of him. Harry extended his magic toward Tony to see what the damage was and to try to take some of the pain away. _Granted, I can't take away the emotional pain away but I can help with the physical discomfort._ He pulled a pain-reliving potion out of his bag and handed it to Tony, who drank it immediately.

“... Well, I got here a couple minutes ago and he was on the floor.” Rhodey was saying.

“I presume this was Obediah's doing? Pepper called me about him,” Harry commented.

“ _Yes, it was. He disabled me when he came, though, so I was unavailable to call for help.”_

 _“_ I need to go after him; he has one of my arc reactors and he'll probably go after Pepper. And I don't want him selling any other weapons or these suits under the table,” Tony said.

“Yep, I figured you would. Go! I'll follow and keep the civilians out of harms way, if need be and help you if you need it,” Harry replied.

“Rhodey, will you keep the skies clear?” Tony asked.

“Yeah.” answered Rhodey.


	6. Chapter 6

Tony and Harry took off for Stark Industries; Tony to confront Obediah and Harry to guard the perimeter. Harry went running toward Pepper to pull her out of the way and then just where she was, a giant metal suit came up out of the ground. It wasn't really like Tony's suit; it was more clunkier, bigger and uglier.

“Agent Coulson and the other agents of Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division are in there. I don't know if any of them are injured or not,” Pepper shouted over the sounds of the two iron suits fighting in the background.

“I'll go check on them. That is a really long ass name and what do they do?” Harry asked.

“That's what I said to him, also, well not in those specific words. You should really ask Coulson; they're a really big secret organization that supervises secret agents. He has this speech about it,” Pepper commented.

Harry ran into the building that housed the big arc reactor and into the Super Secret Villain's Lair and started searching it for the agents. He didn't see any of them, so he assumed they were all outside already. When he was about go back out of the building, he heard a couple of hard thumps on the roof. He looked up toward the glass ceiling and saw the two men circling each other. Tony had thrown his helmet and one of his gauntlets off. Hearing someone running back inside, Harry glanced back toward the door. Pepper was running toward the control panels just right next to the big arc reactor and started to turn some of the dials.

“Tony, get off the building. It's ready!” Pepper yelled, “Harry, the building's going to blow. Get out of here.”

“I'll stay and make sure Tony's okay. I can survive it. Go!”

“Okay, I'm blowing it!” and with that Pepper ran out of the building. Harry cast a shielding spell around him and Pepper, just in case, and waited for the blast to die down. The arc reactor started to glow more than it already was and from Harry's perspective, seemed to grow bigger and bigger, which resulted in a giant explosion.

 

“Tony?” Harry shouted, already glancing to where he had last seen the man. Seeing him on the ceiling, Harry cast a disillusionment charm on himself and then flew up to the roof on his broom. Harry picked up an unconscious Tony and flew back to the house. _He probably wouldn't want to deal with reporters and the backlash right now, anyway. SHIELD can deal with it._

“Jarvis, would you let Pepper and Rhodey know that I've got Tony?”

“ _Of course. Should I call for an ambulance?”_

 _“_ No, I've got it.” Harry proceeded to place Tony in bed and scanned him with his magic. He didn't pick up any injuries; only a couple of cuts and scrapes, which he healed. Harry placed a glass of water and a pain-killing potion on the bedside table, with a note to drink it all. He told Jarvis to alert him if he was needed and went to the guest bedroom to take a shower and change into his lion form. ( _He liked sleeping in this form, okay?_ ) Then he trotted out and into the bedroom that he placed Tony in and curled up on the floor, keeping watch.

When Harry woke up, he sleepily yawned and stretched, arching his back, and shifted back into his human shape. He realized that the sun was already up, well into the sky. He cast a tempus charm and read 10:30am and noticed Tony was gone. Seeing as Jarvis hadn't warned him or woken him up, he figured the man was at a press conference so Harry assumed, because why wouldn't there be one when there were explosions and robot looking suits attempting to kill one another in public?

“Jarvis, is my assumption that Tony went to a press conference right? Did he drink the potion that I gave him?”

“ _Yes, it is. He assumed you would want to follow him there, but didn't want to wake you. He did drink the potion you gave him and made a fuss at the taste, too.”_

 _“_ I'll just go get some breakfast and then meet them there. I don't need any directions, though is it at the same building the first one was?”

“ _Of course.”_

 

Harry apparated to his apartment _._ He grabbed a bagel and then apparated to Tony's location via the tracking spell that he had placed on him. But before he did, he threw on his invisibility cloak because who knew who he would apparate in front of or near.

He found Pepper and went to stand next to her. He saw who he thought was Agent Coulson in the doorway of the building, with all members of the press in seats in the room. Well, the press were all standing near their seats and it was a mess of noise comprised of loud questions about Tony being 'Iron Man'. Harry pulled off the cloak and chuckled.

“That's to be expected. I mean, come on, it's Tony, he's not going to do anything half-assed.”

Pepper jumped at the unexpected voice to her right. “Harry, I didn't see you! Yes, that certainly wasn't in the schedule to be aired to the public and that probably was not in the cards that Coulson had given him. I hope you slept well last night; I came in to check in on Tony and found you.”

“Yep, I did sleep well, thanks. Yeah, yesterday was certainly very busy.”

“Of course it would. The press conference is nearly over; you can ride back with us,” Pepper replied.

“Thanks. I don't have anything urgent that needs my attention back in Britain or at the bakery, so I guess I'll stay for a couple of days; make sure Tony's okay after that fight.” Harry said.

As they were talking, one of the agents- Coulson- he remembered, walked over and stood in front of them and raised an eyebrow, questioningly. “You were there yesterday, weren't you?”

“You must be Agent Coulson. So what's this Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division group that Pepper mentioned and yes, I was there,” Harry asked him.

“SHIELD. You can call us SHIELD. As a I said to Pepper, this isn't our first circus,” Coulson said, “And, you are?”

“Harry Potter, friend of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts.” Harry looked at Coulson curiously. He seemed like an agent out of the FBI or CIA or like an auror, except not dressed like a wizard. He also seemed friendly and was likely to get right to the point in an argument. At this moment though, Coulson was looking at him, perplexedly.

“I'm not in your files, am I?” Harry teased.

“No, you're not. It's very confusing,” Coulson said.

“Well, you are not going to find me anywhere. I have very good security on my background papers. Besides, you're not going to get Tony or Pepper to tell you.” Harry commented. _Not to mention that I used to live in a secret society that no one else knew about in Britain. That might put a dent in their investigations._

 _“_ Harry, we're done over here. Ready to go?” Pepper called.

“Yep, coming.”

The three of them rode back to Tony's place after Harry was done talking with Coulson. Harry was rather curious about this SHIELD that Coulson was apparently an agent of. He wondered how far it stretched and if they knew about wizards. Coulson obviously didn't know, but the people in charge might. He figured it would be on a need-to-know basis. Kingsley hadn't known anything about a SHIELD when he had fire-called him last night and he was still the minister of magic.

Once they arrived back, Tony went into the workshop and both Pepper and Harry went into the living room and sat down on one of the couches. Pepper immediately pulled out some paperwork from her bag to work on. “Jarvis, could you pull up anything on SHIELD and anything related to it, that you have?” Harry asked.

“Why are you interested in SHIELD, Harry?” Pepper said.

“I haven't heard of it and well, I want to keep up to date on government organizations in the non-wizarding world,” Harry replied.

“ _Information coming up, right now.”_

A couple of screens, transparent, but showing lots of articles from newspapers and online info showed up in the middle of the air in front of the couch. “ _This is all I've got, I'm afraid.”_

 _“_ That's fine, Jarvis. Thanks.”

There was a lot of information on one, Bruce Banner, scientist. Interested, Harry read on. It seemed like Banner had gotten into a chemical accident and become akin to a werewolf. His other form was a giant green man. It reminded Harry of Remus; sure their alternate forms were different, but they had similar situations. Banner probably transformed with heightened emotions and not with the moon. Although, when Harry thought about that, he remembered hearing a group of unspeakables talking about a scientist that, when angry transformed into a large green monster.

“Jarvis, did you hack into their computer systems to find this information?”

“ _Yes, I did. It was relatively easy, too. It seems like they don't have as good of a system as me.”_

 _“_ Just this once, though. I don't want to alert them to what I'm doing. They might not like it if I was getting information on their agents.”

Then Harry pulled up a file of one of their apparently best agents, someone codenamed Hawkeye, Clint Barton and then another one, the Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff, both master assassins. It seemed that Hawkeye used a bow and arrows as weapons. The Black Widow was a woman who appeared to really make use of the codename. Harry kept seeing the word, “Avengers” in many places, in reference to creating a group with the Iron Man in it as well.

Harry was interested in visiting all of them to see how they worked. They seemed like good friends to have. Plus, Banner could probably use his help. “Jarvis, where was Banner last seen?”

“ _He was last seen in Harlem, New York. That's why there is somewhat large amount of articles about destruction there. I'm picking up some cell phone signals in South America that may have been about him.”_

 _“_ Do you have an exact location?”

“ _Yes, I'll send it to your phone. The coordinates are the nearest town that the news reports mention.”_

 _“_ Thanks. I'll go say goodbye to Pepper and Tony. If you or either of them need me for anything, and I mean anything, you can call me and I'll come right away.” 

 


	7. Chapter 7

After saying goodbye to Pepper and Tony, Harry apparated to his apartment and packed a small bag. He put the invisibility cloak, his two wands, a couple potions that could come in handy(most probably calming drafts) and his already miniaturized broomstick. He glanced at his phone to check the coordinates that Jarvis gave him. Harry planned on picturing Banner in his mind and just apparating to his location(that had worked in the past); and then hopefully placing a tracking charm on him. Once he was ready to go, Harry threw on his invisibility cloak, putting on a sticking charm, and then having the profile of Bruce in his mind, apparated there.

He arrived in the middle of a old village that had lots of ancient trees in and around it. It was obviously in the early evening, around 5pm. Harry glanced around and spotted who was probably Bruce talking to a group of soldiers, but in the midst of transforming. It looked like a standoff to Harry. Banner looked like he was having trouble keeping calm and holding back the shift, all the while turning green in spots. _Hmm, looks I'll have to do damage control. It seems like the soldiers are trying to get him to shift._ Harry ran behind a building and took off his cloak and then shifted into his hawk form. He took off and flew around the village, getting the layout of it. It seemed deserted to him, like Bruce had picked this place and time to talk to these people on purpose, knowing that if he 'hulked out' (that's what Jarvis and the newspapers had called it) that there would be no casualties.

When he was to the towns border, it wasn't a very big town, he heard roaring. Racing back, he saw the big giant green Hulk grabbing the soldiers and throwing them around. Landing and then shifting back to his human form, Harry took one look at the soldiers still on their feet and silently sent a group stunner at them and then sent his patronus (which was still Prongs) to the national equivalent of Auror's office to tell the about the soldiers. They would hopefully take care of it. Then he went about trying to get the Hulk's attention. He pulled out his broom and flew up to about where the Hulk's head was.

“Hey, big guy, over here!”

The Hulk turned and glanced his way and started toward Harry. The wizard raced away, with the Hulk following him out of the town. Harry's goal was to get the Hulk so tired that he would begin to shrink and then let Bruce back out. So they raced around the town and a couple of miles outside of it. The Hulk finally looked like he was shrinking after a couple of hours of racing and trying to get to the wizard.

Harry slowed down, just as soon as Bruce reappeared. Harry landed and caught Bruce just as he started to fall.

“Who are you?” Bruce asked sleepily.

“I'm a friend, Harry Potter. I'm not here to take you off to a lab. Also, I knocked out those soldiers that were trying to get you to do that.”

“Oh, aren't you scared of me? I just was a big ball of green rage,” Bruce murmured.

“I've seen scarier, but no, you don't. If you like, I have a safe house up in California. You can sleep off this shift in it,” Harry commented. Bruce was looking like he was going to pass out any minute. Harry figured that changing when provoked would be a lot more tiring than changing when not provoked and when he chose to.

“But, we're in South America. How can we get there from here instantly?” he asked.

“I can transport us there...” Harry stopped. Bruce had fallen asleep in Harry's arms. Smiling, Harry got ready to apparate and disappeared.

 

* * *

 

 

He landed in his apartment at 9:45pm and dropped his bag in the kitchen, still carrying Bruce. Harry walked into his guest room and deposited Banner in the guest bed and put a monitoring charm on him to let him know when Bruce would wake up. Summoning a glass of water from the kitchen and pulling the covers up and over Bruce, Harry left the water on the bedside table and walked out and into the kitchen.

He went downstairs to the bakery and put together a couple of bagels and pastries. _Though, I should probably make a lot more; Bruce likely will be a lot more hungry after he wakes up._ After making a couple of sandwiches, he put some on a plate and set them on the island in the kitchen for Bruce. Harry had figured that if Remus was starving after the full moon, then Bruce would be too; though no full moon was required. Once he had done that, he placed a preserving charm on the food that would go off when they both woke up.

After finishing that, he went into his own bedroom and cleaned up. Racing a big green hulking monster for a couple of miles resulted in a lot of dirt on his body. Once he stepped out of the shower, he shrugged into pajamas and flopped into bed and fell asleep soon afterwards.

* * *

 

 

When Harry woke up, it was to his monitoring charm going off. Harry cast a tempus charm and found that it was 8:30am. He got up and went to get dressed in comfortable day clothes(not robes, obviously, Harry didn't want to stand out) and walked out into the living room. He removed the preserving charm on the pastries and bagels in the kitchen and got out two plates. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Bruce slowly walk into the kitchen. He seemed hesitant, as if not sure of his welcome.

“You are not in any way a prisoner or captive here, if that's what you're worried about, Bruce” Harry said. Harry had seen some of the files in SHIELD about those times and, well, it wouldn't be happening in the future if Harry had anything to say about it. He had already placed a tracking spell on Bruce, that would hopefully transfer to the hulk when he transformed.

“How did we get here so quickly? Last I remember, we were in South America,” Bruce asked.

“Let's eat breakfast and then I will explain. I brought up some bagels from my bakery downstairs, so they should be good. I imagine you're hungry from last night.”

Bruce proceeded to sit at one of the kitchen tables and started to eat. Harry was already sitting and started to eat, too. After finishing eating, Harry put away the dishes in the sink.

“So, ask away, Bruce.”

“Who are you?”

“For starters, I'm a wizard.”

“Wizard, as in Merlin, kind of wizard or Gandalf?” Bruce asked, looking rather skeptical about that.

“As in--” Harry flicked his wrist and sent the dirty breakfast dishes to washing themselves-- “that kind of wizard, but yes Merlin is the most similar to us,” Harry explained.

Bruce startled at the sight of the dishes washing themselves with the soap and the sponges getting in on the act. While he was gaping at the dishes, Harry had transformed into his lion form. He quietly padded over to Bruce and sat on his haunches, placing a paw on Banner's lap, waiting patiently. Feeling a new weight on his lap, Bruce turned his head and looked down. This time, Banner jumped and turned just slightly green. After a few minutes, he seemed to calm down and reached out a hand, hesitantly. Harry butted his head against Banner's hand and the scientist started to pet him.

 

* * *

 

 

 

“So you're that kind of wizard...” Bruce said, “And you can travel long distances in the blink of an eye."

“Yep, it's called apparition.”

“Why haven't I or anyone else met any wizards or seen any?”

  
“We have a statute of secrecy, but do you remember that 'terrorist attack' in London a few years ago?”

“Yes”

“Well, that was us, or just wizards in general. Those were the bad guys.”

“Oh, so there are bad wizards?”

“There were, Death Eaters who followed this really awful wizard called Lord Voldemort.” Harry then proceeded to explain the rest of his past, just talking about the big events, otherwise he would be talking into the evening.

 

* * *

 

 

“Thanks for getting me out of that situation yesterday,” Bruce said.

“Your welcome. I presume you want go lose yourself in another little town in another country?” Harry said, questioningly.

Bruce looked rather sheepish at that. “I like being able to help other people and I've found that being in small towns with no military presence means that I'm less likely to hulk out.”

“I understand. You kind of remind of my friend, Remus.”

“The werewolf?”

“Yes, he preferred small towns too. I can take you wherever you want to go.”

“Okay, I was thinking Calcutta?”

“Well, go get ready. I've got some potions that you can take with you, some calming drafts. Whenever you feel stressed, you can take one and it'll calm your nerves.”

“Thanks.”

Harry went into the room that he had made into a potion's lab(and yes, he was a lot better with potions, these days) and pulled out 3 calming potions. He had noticed that when he had shifted into his lion form, Bruce had not lost control. Otherwise, there would be a whole lot more instances of him hulking out. _Someone like that would have to perfect their control, much like a werewolf._ Summoning a couple of sets of clothes that he thought would fit Bruce and a bag of toiletries that he had lying around unused, he packed a small pack for the scientist. Once that was done, he went downstairs to the bakery and put a couple of sandwiches in a small bag that would also go into the bag for Bruce.

Done with that, Harry walked back upstairs to the living room. Banner was already there standing at the ready _._

 

* * *

 

 

“Ready to go?” Harry asked, “Here, I packed you a bag. It has the potions that I told you about in it.

“Yes, I'm ready. Oh, okay, I appreciate that. Now, how does this work, apparition?” Bruce replied.

“I need to at least hold your hand, but think of the place that you want to in your mind. I'll use it to get us there. You might want to close your eyes, too.”

“Okay, I'm thinking of it.” Bruce extended his hand and Harry covered it with his own.

Harry extended his magic over to Bruce and had it go to his image of their destination and then sidelong apparated them both to Calcutta. They landed behind a building in the evening, luckily. Harry glanced at Banner, just to make sure he was okay. He seemed okay, if a little shaken. “Okay, this is your stop.” Harry teased.

“Thanks a lot, Harry,” Bruce murmured.

“No big deal. I get protective of my friends and well, this wasn't a difficult trip for me. Here, the bag I packed for you. I put in an extra cell phone in the pack and my number's in it. Call me if you need anything, even if it's just to talk you down. ” Harry handed over the bag to Bruce and backed up a foot.

“Well, I'll see you later, Harry. It was nice meeting you, not to mention exciting. A real wizard!”

Chuckling, Harry waved and then disapparated.

After he dropped Bruce off, he apparated back to his apartment. He planned on spending the next few months working and making sure that things with his bakery were going well. 


	8. Chapter 8

One morning, five months after leaving Bruce in Calcutta, Harry was working in the bakery. He overheard a tv news host commenting on a famous car race in Italy and how it had ended in disaster a couple hours ago.

 _Hmm, didn't Pepper say they were going to Italy for a couple of days?_ The news host was talking about a disaster on the track and then showed some footage of it. It looked like Tony had decided to race a car today. Snickering, Harry walked over and glanced more at the tv. The news host was now talking about a guy who had apparently walked out onto the track and had what looked like an arc reactor and had destroyed the track and a couple of the cars and then really attempted to kill Stark. Harry was starting to get worried; it seemed like the guy had been gunning for Tony. Harry didn't expect any direct attack on Stark so soon after what happened roughly six months ago. _I remember Pepper saying that they were going home today._

Deciding to rendezvous at the airport with them, Harry went back home and picked up his already packed bag, which was packed with his essentials and some freshly made potions. He then concentrated on the tracking charm that he had placed on Pepper and then apparated.

He arrived in what looked like an Italian airport and in their private hangar. It was currently bustling with people getting the Stark plane ready for take off. Luckily, he had pulled on his invisibility cloak before he had apparated, so no one saw him. It seemed like they were only a few minutes off from take off, so Harry walked over to the plane, up the stairs and got in. Once in, he pulled off his cloak. Pepper and Tony were sitting in opposite seats and both working on different things- paperwork for Pepper and repairing his briefcase suit for Tony. Harry walked over and sat down next to Pepper.

“Harry! I didn't expect to see you,” Pepper said. Harry glanced at Tony, though he seemed like he was extremely focused on his work, he seemed shaken. Though, come to think of it, for the last couple of weeks, Tony had seemed withdrawn and had secluded himself in his workshop.

“Well, I heard what happened yesterday and figured you guys could use the company. So, what happened?” Harry asked.

“Someone figured out how to build and put together an arc reactor and tried to kill Tony. Obviously, that didn't work, but it was scary. Happy and I brought over the briefcase armor and that settled it.” Pepper explained. Harry had figured that after that they would both be more than a little distressed.

“Oh, well, I guess I'll fly home with you,” Harry said and then walked over and sat down in the one of the chairs. He glanced around the plane, eyes lighting on a woman with red curly hair. The woman was going through some paperwork and looked like she was concentrating, but also keeping an eye on Harry. _I should have known that Natasha would have come as well._

Harry got up and walked over to say hi to who he now knew was the Black Widow, master assassin. Before saying hi and introducing himself, he quietly erected a privacy ward.

Natasha glanced toward him in an assessing gaze.

“Hi Tasha! How are you?” Harry asked. During the last month or two of spending a couple of days with Tony and Pepper, he had met Natasha Romanoff, who had initially taken the role of notary from Stark Industries. Harry had seen right through that and introduced himself.

The 6th time that Harry had seen her was quite an accident. He had spent time with Tony in his workshop, except he had been in his hawk form at the time. Natasha had come in, with paperwork from SI (stark industries) and, well, she hadn't startled, but she had blinked and raised an eyebrow, waiting for an explanation. And, Harry had told her all that she needed to know, after shifting back to his human form. Then, the next time they saw each other, she told him about her other career choice, which he then told her that he already knew. Harry had just thought it was her secret to tell, after she had asked why he hadn't said anything.

“I'm doing well, Harry,” Natasha replied. Harry had told her basically everything; Natasha had been very curious about Hogwarts, though.

“So, what's your appraisal of what happened? ” he asked, intrigued.

“I did get to see everything that happened; however, I was at a party with a lot of people and most of them were riveted and cheering for 'Iron Man'. Though, I was keeping an eye on Justin Hammer, he did seem to be interested in Ivan Vanko,” Natasha commented.

“That could be problematic. Hammer is the rival weapons maker, isn't he?” Harry asked.

“Yes, but, his weapons don't have the same quality as Stark's use to.”

When they arrived back in California, Harry joined the three of them for dinner. He had planned on attending Stark's birthday party in a couple of days.

On the day of Tony's birthday party, Harry flew to the mansion in his bird form a couple of hours after the party started at 11pm. He figured that apparating into the home would be risky, with a lot of strangers partying there. When he arrived, he heard screaming and glass shattering. Zeroing in on the tracking charm he placed onto Tony, he landed on the balcony and shifted back.

When he took a good look inside, he immediately cast a shield charm on himself. Tony was in his suit and it looked like there was another suit attacking him. People were running out of the building very quickly, while Harry scanned the room, looking for Pepper. He located her and ran toward that part of the building.

“Pepper, what's happening? Why is Tony in the suit when it's just a birthday party?” Harry shouted above the noise. He once again shot a shield spell toward Pepper and Happy.

“Tony's well beyond drunk right now. Something is definitely amiss with him. I had tried to get him to end the party, but he didn't. So, Rhodey tried and well, this happened,” Pepper yelled.

“Well, you two had better get out of here. With the way they're going, it's dangerous for us to be this near them. I'll keep an eye on them, make sure they don't kill each other!” Harry said jokingly.

Harry made sure the two of them got out and then settled in to watch. He was far enough away that he didn't hear anything that was being said. He really didn't want to get in their way, so he just sat down and waited patiently. He watched them throw things at each other and then, the two men in the suits put their hands up and started to power up the repulsors.

 _Hmm, maybe I should get out of immediate range. This looks like it could get even more destructive._ Harry then apparated out of there and back to his apartment to grab some hangover potion for Tony in the morning and then apparated back, just to outside of the mansion.

Harry assumed that the fight was over when he saw the suit that Rhodey was in fly out of there at breakneck speed. Then the Iron Man suit with Tony in it flew the other way after a couple of minutes. Harry shifted into his hawk form, picked up his bag in his beak and then followed Tony.

They ended up at a donut store with a giant donut on the roof, after a couple of hours of flying. Harry had ended up landing on Iron Man, because he had grown tired following him. Tony landed on the roof in the donut and for all appearances, fell asleep.

In the morning, Harry, still in his hawk form, was woken up by Tony, still in the suit, flying down to land on the ground. Harry sleepily glanced and made eye contact with whom he thought was Nick Fury, leader of SHIELD. Tony and Nick went into the donut shop after a couple of minutes of talking.

Harry flew down and then glanced around, seeing that no one was around shifted back to human form. Just as Harry was walking into the shop, he heard a car pull up and park.

“Hey, Natasha. Long time, no see. Ah, are you going to break the news to Tony that you aren't just a secretary, today?”

“Good to see you too, Harry. Yes, it's a little urgent, though,” Natasha said.

“Why is it urgent?” Harry asked, getting somewhat worried.

“He didn't tell you?”

“No, what's up?” said Harry, now very worried.

“He's dying,” Natasha murmured.

“Dammit, I would've thought he would tell me about something of that manner,” Harry commented, now a little pissed off and still very worried.

“If it makes you feel better, he didn't tell Pepper either.”

“No, it doesn't,” Harry said, with a little growl in his voice and with that Harry and Natasha walked into the shop.

They both sauntered over to where Tony and Nick were sitting. Harry glanced at Natasha, who was wearing a skintight black uniform that looked like it had lots of little places to hide a lot of weapons. She had a small syringe in her right hand and when they got over to the pair, stabbed it in Tony's neck.

“Ow, what was that for?” Tony complained and then glanced up toward Natasha.

Tony's eyes widened, “Who are you? You look like you're a lot more than just a secretary.”

“Tony, you're dying?” Harry asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Oh, Harry, I...uh... meant to tell you, I kept putting it off, and well, if it makes”--

“It doesn't, but I'm sure Pepper would like to know. You two have gotten close,” Harry commented. “But, that's for another time. Here, I brought you some hangover potion.”

“Oh, thank you. You are again the best!” Tony said with teasing cheerfulness in his tone. He reached out for the potion and drank it down immediately.

“You three have your talk. I'm going back to the house and sleeping that night off,” Harry said.

“Okay, Harry see you later,” Tony replied.

Harry said goodbye to Natasha and then went into one of the bathrooms in back of the shop and then apparated back to the mansion. He figured that he would spend some time cleaning up the mess from last night. So for the next couple of hours, he levitated and spelled things back to their original places.

 


	9. Chapter 9

After 3 or 4 hours of cleaning, he registered a car or two pull up in the wards. (He had warded Tony's place after the incident five months ago). He recognized Tasha, Tony, Nick Fury and, of course, Phil Coulson.

Luckily, he had finished working a couple of minutes ago, so there weren't pieces of glass floating around. Harry walked into the kitchen and started to get out things for lunch, as he had brought some bread over from the bakery for sandwiches. Then he set about making a big plate of sandwiches and brought them over to the table.

“Sandwiches are right here, if anyone wants them,” Harry said.

“Thanks, Harry,” Tony replied distractedly.

“I'm going to go meditate in my guest room, if you need anything,” Harry said and with that walked into the room that he usually used at the mansion. He took to meditating after he had received the magic boost from the hollows and usually needed to do it every month or so. Harry had already had a big bucket of magic before and now that he had much more, he needed to center himself, lest the magic go haywire. Hermione had been the one to suggest it at first and it had worked.

He could have done it out in the workshop, just to keep Tony company, but with that much machinery and electronics around, he couldn't. When he meditated, he usually needed to ward the room first, because the first time he had done it, furniture and things around the room that had not been bolted down to the floor had lifted up and floated in the air.

He sat cross-legged on the bed and closed his eyes, going to his magic center. This time, when he was finally immersed in his magic, he had a sense of another kind of magic somewhere in.... he was able to pinpoint it in New Mexico. The magic seemed unearthly, like it's origin was not of Earth. To Harry, it was not a kind of magic that he had seen before. It had little thunder bolts in the magic and that was the oddest thing that Harry had seen in his life and he had seen a lot of odd things. _I wonder if SHIELD will know anything. I should ask Natasha once I'm through here._

After about an hour and half later of centering his magic once again, he opened his eyes and then stretched. He cast a tempus charm and realized it was 4 in the afternoon and then decided that he would spend the night at the mansion. Once he walked out of his room, he heard the sounds of construction and machinery moving. _What is Tony doing? Is he trying to destroy the house? This seems to be a very common thing when Tony is working on something new._

Harry followed the sounds to the workshop, where he saw big circular pieces of metal molded together and Tony and Coulson working together.

“Hey, did you find a new element to put in your arc reactor?” Harry asked Tony. Natasha had filled him in about the inventor's predicament earlier. The first element that he had used to create the miniaturized arc reactor had slowly started to kill him.

“Yes, it should work,” replied Tony and then predictably went back to work.

“Goodbye, Harry,” Coulson said.

“Where are you going?” Harry asked curiously.

“On another assignment. To New Mexico.”

“Well, good luck.” Harry wondered if Coulson going to New Mexico had anything to do with what he had sensed earlier. _It probably did. If it's anything big, which it is, SHIELD will have a hand in it._ _It seems like I should go with him. Luckily, I placed a tracking charm on him before he left._

 _“_ Tony, do you need any further help at all with this?” Harry asked.

“No, I've got this. You're going to New Mexico, right?”

“Yes, because of Coulson and I sensed something when I was just meditating a couple of minutes ago,” Harry replied.

“Sensed something?” Tony asked curiously.

“Yes, something unearthly, and magic,” Harry said.

“Oh, well, I presume you don't need transportation? I would go just to piss off Fury, but I'm busy,” Tony commented, while still working on the new element.

“No, I'll probably just go in my hawk form and follow Coulson. And again, if you need anything--”

“You'll come running, I know. If you need anything, just call. But I won't. Vanko's dead, so that's taken care of.”

And with that, Harry went out to the balcony and then shifted forms. Shaking his feathers out, he homed in on the tracking charm he placed on Coulson and flew toward him. Harry hadn't let Coulson know about being a wizard and he was probably too smart not to notice a hawk following him and being too intelligent for a hawk. So Harry kept his distance and occasionally cast a notice-me-not spell on himself. Coulson drove through the night, only stopping to pick up snacks.

When they finally arrived in New Mexico, Harry took extra care to follow Coulson, because he didn't know exactly where they were going. A couple of hours passed and they had just passed the town of Puente Antiguo. The magic that Harry had sensed when he was meditating was getting closer and growing with each passing minute, along with his curiosity.

Harry had taken to flying a couple of feet above Coulson's car for the duration of this trip, so he hovered over it when the car stopped. They had stopped on a hill overlooking a big hole in the ground that had a lot of trucks and truckers around it. Harry glanced around the area and noticed that most of the trucks had chains wrapped around the trucks. He had flown and perched on one of the trucks and had spotted the thing that the chains were wrapped around-- it was a hammer, a big hammer, which looked like it weighed a lot. Harry flew up and then flew over for a closer look at the hammer. When he landed right next to the hammer, he received some odd looks from the people around him and when he looked over at where Coulson was, the agent had a very weird look on his face too, like he thought it was very odd to see a hawk examining the hammer.

The hammer looked like it was an old tool or weapon and it definitely had magic running along its sides, however the magic that came out of it was coming out of it in little thunder bolts. _Very odd, I've never seen anything like it._ Harry took one last glance at it and then flew up and decided to fly back to Puente Antiguo to keep an eye on the town. He figured that SHIELD would move in to the area and study the hammer, in fact, he had spotted some big black trucks and vans moving toward this vicinity.

When he reached the town 15 minutes later, he landed on what looked like a cafe and surveyed the town. It wasn't a big town, only a couple hundred people in it. The biggest building, but not enormous, in the town appeared to be a building that consisted of scientific instruments. It kind of looked like Tony's lab, but a lot smaller.

Harry flew up and then flew down to the ground and landed behind the cafe and then shifted back to his human form. The wizard then walked into the cafe and grabbed some lunch. Harry kept yawning every few minutes while he was eating; it had been a while since he had flown that far. Harry pulled out a pepper-up potion out of his bag and gulped it down. He then decided that being on a roof would aid in his surveying of the town, so he shifted back into his hawk form and then took off.

As soon as he landed there, a couple of smaller black cars, along with a black van, parked right next to the building. The presumably SHIELD agents started carting out the many different laboratory machinery and supplies. The three people that Harry had seen in the building, two women and one man came walking and ran toward Coulson, who had accompanied the agents.

“What are you doing with our stuff?” said one of the women, angrily.

“We are confiscating it for our own research purposes,” Coulson said and then promptly flashed a badge. As he did that, he glanced upward to the roof and then his gaze lighted on the hawk taking a special interest in the proceedings. That was the hawk that had studied the hammer...

Harry watched as Coulson narrowed his eyes at him and then refocused on the other agents that were finished with packing the boxes in the van. Then they all promptly got back in their cars and drove off.

A couple of minutes later, Harry heard some noises coming up from the doorway to the building. The three scientists were coming up the stairs to the roof. Harry was perched by the edge of the roof, but he was reluctant to move, so he stayed put.

The two women and one man walked onto the roof, but once they saw the hawk, they slowed down.

“Hey, bird,” the woman with the darker brown hair(who Harry had thought was Darcy) said, “That bird isn't flying away from us... Aren't birds suppose to fly away from people?”

“It doesn't look like it's wounded, though, if it was wounded wouldn't it not stay put?” the other woman said(Jane).

“Let's just leave it be. It'll fly away if it wants to,” the man said(Erik).

The three of them slowly inched toward the edge of the roof and then sat down, with their legs swinging freely in the air. They started to chat amongst themselves, while Harry just continued to glance around the town, still in his hawk form.

 

 

An hour or so later, Harry was following the woman named Jane who had gotten into their van and driven and then stopped near the one pet store in town. Harry had landed on the van once it had stopped. He had sensed some of the same magic from the hammer around the same area. He looked around the street for the source and found it in the pet store that they had stopped in front of.

“Still need a lift?” Jane yelled at a tall, muscular man in the store.

Harry studied the man throughly, seeing little sparks of what looked like miniaturize lightning bolts and thunder to the wizard. Granted, Harry was the only one who could see the magic. It reminded Harry of some reading he did in school about a Norse god of thunder, Thor, he was called. He hadn't thought that was real, but then again, wizard! So, he had a god of thunder walking around New Mexico. _That's the only explanation for the magic that's emanating from him._ Harry wondered what he was doing here.

As Harry was thinking, the apparent god of thunder had started to study the hawk. Thor wondered why a hawk had calmly perched on the van, just watching him. He hadn't known about any sorcerers or warlocks or wizards on Midgard and the hawk definitely screamed “not just a hawk.” Thor had enough experience with his brother to know that this bird was not entirely just a bird.

Harry watched as Thor gave a slight nod to him-- it seems like Thor knows, _hmm_ \-- and then ran around and got into the passenger seat in the van. As soon as the van started up again, Harry was about to cast a sticking charm on himself to the roof, but he heard a window open in the van and flew down to look.

Thor had opened a window in the back for him to fly into and then gone back into the passenger seat. Harry flew through the window and shifted back into his human form as he landed and then pulled his invisibility cloak on. He had heard that Jane and Thor intended on going to look at the hammer.

He spent the ride to the hammer site dozing and when the car stopped, he was startled. _Didn't they have, maybe another couple of minutes to go?_ It was dark out when they stopped, at least 7:30pm. When Harry glanced out of the car, he was very impressed, SHIELD had erected a miniature encampment around the hammer! It hadn't even been a whole day! When both Thor and Jane got out of the van, Harry got out too by way of the door that Thor had left open for an extra minute or two, which confused Jane.

After Harry got out of the van, he shifted back into his hawk form and flew down to the encampment. He flew around the perimeter and watched Thor run into the above ground tunnels that SHIELD had created with some material. Harry had perched on this box that had cables attached to it outside of the tunnels and suddenly someone ran into the box and it lifted off the ground. Releasing a squawk, Harry turned around and looked at the man who had gotten inside. The man was very startled to see a hawk on the railing of the box next to him, but not startled enough to jump.

“Hey, hawk... You sure seem to be comfortable with me, or I guess people in general if you flew into this encampment. Actually, you look like the hawk that Natasha told me about.”

Harry gave a medium loud kree, as if in agreement.

 _Oh, that's Hawkeye, or Clint Barton, master archer! I didn't expect to see someone of that variety here._ _SHIELD doesn't know that that's Thor. That's going to be amusing to watch._ As the box lifted into the sky, a couple of feet off the ground, Clint pulled out a compound bow and strung an arrow. Harry was now able to watch Thor fight his way to what Harry thought would be Mjolnir, his hammer, now that Harry knew that this was indeed Thor. _I wonder what Hawkeye's orders are._ Then a couple of seconds later, Harry got his answer, Clint was talking to someone, presumably Coulson about either taking the shot or slowing him down.

Wanting to get a better look at Thor was doing, he flew down and flew behind a big storage container and shifted back to human form and promptly pulled his invisibility cloak on. _I had wondered why Thor had to go and retrieve his hammer. Couldn't he just raise his hand and it would come to him?_ Harry ran to where Thor was currently fighting a very big man. It looked like the brunt end of the fight- they were both in the mud and Thor was the only one to get up. After that, Harry followed Thor to where the hammer was located.

Thor looked very excited when he came up to the hammer. Harry was just standing in the corner of the big area where the hammer was, still with the cloak on. Thor grabbed onto the handle of Mjolnir and he pulled like he expected to able to pick it up, but it wasn't budging at all. _Why wouldn't he be able to pick it up? Is that part of why he's here on Earth, and not on Asgard?_ Thor looked very,  very disappointed to not have been able to pick it up. A minute after, Harry heard stomping of a lot of military boots and turned around. Apparently, Coulson had given the order to arrest Thor. Given that Harry had no big credentials to flash to get him out of there, he slowly shadowed them.

The SHIELD agents herded him out of the area where the hammer was still sitting there and into a room that was off of the main area. It looked set for an interrogation; it had one chair in the middle of it, which they set Thor in and left. It was just Thor, Coulson and Harry in the small room.

Coulson started talking and asking questions about where was Thor from and what kind of training he had. _Coulson thought that Thor was a terrorist! That was hilarious._ Harry started chuckling, albeit silently.To Harry, Thor was obviously not from Earth, but that was probably just Harry. He knew when someone was supernatural in origin and Thor distinctly was.

After a couple minutes of asking questions that Thor was not answering, Coulson was pulled out of the room by another agent. Knowing that they most certainly had cameras in the room, Harry didn't dare to take off his cloak, though he silently padded across the room and gave the thunder god's shoulder a gentle reassuring squeeze. Thor had his head down, in a dejected manner.

Just as suddenly when he walked back to the corner, his magic went haywire, in a way that suggested someone was coming and he or she was a whole other game. And his magic was right, he turned to glance at the door, because his magic couldn't be reacting to Coulson, it had to be a whole new person. A tall, lean, but muscular(but not like Thor; this man was whipcord slim) man stepped through into the room. He had black hair and green eyes and was wearing a black suit and yep, Harry's magic was reacting with this man's magic. The two very different magics were weaving together. Then Harry's magic, without his permission, went and went around the man and sort of hugged him, which was the weirdest thing that Harry had seen. (Harry had accidentally started to see a physical representation of people's magic after he had woken up that one time after he had died. It had startled him a lot.) This had never happened before to Harry; it seemed like his magic really liked this man, but had just gone and done this without his knowing about it.

Along with that image, came many different images and a long line of pictures that were definitely the history of this one man. It seemed like his magic was trying to tell him something about this mystery person. Harry was bombarded with images and memories that went on like a movie in his mind and it went on for a really long time, too. He got the feeling that this man was immortal, too. _Oh, that's Loki, god of mischief, huh? The brother of Thor?_ _His memories go all the way back to mostly when he was really young._ Then to Harry's embarrassment and displeasure, his magic continued showing him more of Loki's memories. _So that's what Asgard looks like... awesome! Odin looks, well old._ Finally, the assault of the Norse god's memories seemed to be slowing down. The last couple of memories were of little Loki(so cute) playing with his brother Thor on the Bifrost(totally cool) and then this-- it was of a cold, blue world with 8ft tall blue creatures and this memory was very blurred, like it was from a long, long time ago. It seemed like Harry's magic was emphasizing this one because it showed a little, short blue creature in a small crib and Odin coming up and picking him up. That's where the memory ended. _Huh, was that Loki? I thought that Loki was an Asgardian, but hmm, he was born with blue skin? I need to look that up._

While Harry was dealing with the onslaught of memories, Loki was looking around the small room. After the memories finally stopped, Harry blinked a couple times and glanced curiously at Loki. He now felt that he had known the god of mischief for all his life, which was a bit weird. He hadn't heard of that happening anywhere else in the magical world. He stayed gazing at Harry, looking him straight in the eye for a minute or two and raised an eyebrow at him, then went over to talk with Thor. Harry was so startled at the fact that this man could actually see him. He was under the invisibility cloak, for Merlin's sake! No one could see under it, well Dumbledore could, but this was new! However, from what he had seen, Loki was very well immersed in magic, too and a different kind of magic that Harry didn't know a lot about.

Harry just stood there for a couple minutes thinking about that revelation while Thor talked to Loki. _Hmm, Odin's dead? That doesn't exactly connect with Loki's memories._ The last group of memories that Harry had gotten from his magic featured Odin, but the king had seemed asleep, not dead. _However, when I looked into Loki's eyes, he seemed pained and distressed. Also, having found out that he was a frost giant just a couple of hours ago and not a full Asgardian would probably push him over the edge._

 

 


	10. Chapter 10

When Harry glanced back up, Loki was now gone and Coulson was walking back in.

“It seems that you have friends. Someone's come to bail you out,” Coulson said, unaware of the third person in the room.

Thor, having been told that he couldn't go back to Asgard and that his dad was dead, looked up at Coulson. Harry could see tear-tracks on his face, but in response to what Coulson said, Thor stood up and glanced out the door. Harry walked over and saw the scientist from earlier, Erik Selvig, if he remembered correctly. Harry decided that he would follow these two back to their residence and get a good night's sleep. He was very sleepy after the events of the day, especially with what happened with his magic and the god of mischief.

He followed them to the bar and then decided to apparate back to their temporary home. Harry walked in, still wearing the invisibility cloak, went to a corner of the main room and transfigured some pieces of paper to a sleeping bag and a pillow. Before he curled up in the sleeping bag in the corner, he cast a privacy spell around himself, so that no one could be able to see him or be able to hear him, well Thor probably would be able to at least sense him, but no one else would. He would find some way to research Loki in the morning.

 

* * *

 

The rising sun woke Harry up in the morning, along with noises in the kitchen. Sleepily, he opened his eyes, spotting Thor at the stove, working side by side with Jane. _Oh, those two look like they're in love or at least on their way to it. At least something good came out of this._ He glanced at the table where Erik and Darcy were sitting, probably reading the newspaper, since SHIELD had taken all of their findings. Over by the other table, the one that probably had held all of their scientific data, Harry saw a children's fable book. _That might have some info on Thor and Loki._

Harry stood up and banished the sleeping bag and pillow that he had used and changed clothes all in one flick of his wrist. He had pulled off the invisibility cloak before he had gone to bed, so now he had just a notice-me-not spell on himself. He walked over to the table and made sure that the others were occupied and sat down and pulled the book over.

The book didn't have much information, other then saying that both Thor and Loki were gods of thunder and mischief, respectively, and were from Asgard. While he was flipping through the other pages of the book, he heard a knock at the door. Harry closed the book and turned around. What he saw at the door startled him! The Warriors Three and Lady Sif(having recognized them from Loki's memories) had come down to Earth! The scientists also looked very startled, Erik and Jane had dropped their coffee mugs in surprise.

“We found you!” one of the warriors said when Thor went up and opened the door.

“Friends, it is good to see you, though you should not have come!” Thor said.

While the five of them were chatting with each other, Harry had wandered out to the sidewalk. His magic had sensed something else, like it had alerted him to those four warriors arriving on earth and to Loki's arrival. Deciding to go investigate, he quickly shifted to his hawk form and took off. He flew a couple of miles past the town and when he looked ahead, he saw five or six black cars presumably carrying SHIELD agents parked around a peculiar circle rune on the ground. Harry flew onto one of the bigger cars and landed, which drew the attention of at least a couple agents and Coulson.

After a couple of minutes of watching the surrounding area, a big tornado like thing (Harry suspected that that was how the Bifrost worked) touched down on the ground for a couple of seconds completely making that little area of ground not visible. When the tornado was gone, a big hulking robot stood there. It was much like Tony's suit, but much, much bigger and silver and looked very dangerous.

Harry watched as Coulson attempted getting in contact with it, but failed. He was starting to get a bad feeling about it when the face mask dissolved and what looked like flames shot out at the row of SHIELD cars and at him. Harry instantly took off, but not before casting a shielding charm at the agents around him and himself.

Harry watched as the robot started to walk toward the town. The wizard, still in his hawk form, raced toward the town to warn everyone. As soon as he got there, a couple of minutes ahead of the danger, he saw that people had already been warned and were getting out of town. He flew down toward where he saw Thor, Lady Sif and the Warriors three and Jane, Darcy, and Erik.

When he landed on a car and gazed toward the entrance of the town, he saw that the robot and now he recognized it as the Destroyer from Loki's memories, had arrived and started blowing things up. Harry flew behind a car and shifted back to human form. He ran out from behind the car and shot a silent blasting spell at the Destroyer.

However, when the spell landed, it did nothing. _It seems that the Destroyer is immune to magic_. _Well, shit! I shall leave the fighting to the warriors and hopefully, Thor, if he gets his powers back._ Lady Sif and the Warriors Three had already started to try to fight it and to distract it, but again to no avail. The Destroyer had slowly began walking toward the scientists, starting to power up for another beam of destruction. Harry glanced at Lady Sif and the other Asgardian warriors, but they were out for the count and Thor was in the process of waking them up. Jane, Darcy and Erik were all focused on the Destroyer, shock still, watching the Destroyer get ready to target them.

All in one movement, the Destroyer let loose a red, fiery beam straight at Jane and Harry ran right in front of her. At the last minute, he threw up a shielding spell, but it was too late. Harry took the beam straight on and immediately died right on the spot. _Ahh, here we go again._

Hermione had teased him about his saving people thing back in school and right on until he had left. It didn't matter whether or not he had known people for long, he just couldn't stop. It had started with Draco and then went on from there. But, he had died that one time when he was chasing rogue death eaters a couple of months after the battle of Hogwarts and it wasn't pleasant then, too. He had actually died, and it took him a good ten minutes to 'wake up' again.

This time when he woke up, he could sense some people around him. When he opened his eyes, Thor, Jane, Darcy, Erik, the Warriors Three, and Coulson were staring down into his face with sadness and concern on their faces.

“So I guess the Destroyer's dead?” Harry croaked sheepishly. Once Harry had spoken, everyone's eyes had started to grow bigger and bigger.

At that question, everyone startled and then talked at the same time.

“But, you were dead just a minute ago...” Darcy wondered.

“Ah, well, umm, I guess I was, again. And that sucked too,” Harry muttered.

“Yes, my friend, the Destroyer is dead. How did you know that it was called that?” Thor asked. Harry looked up at him and saw that he was holding Mjolnir in his right hand. _So Thor is back to being a full-on thunder god now_. Harry decided not to answer that question because it was rather private since it involved his brother and his own magic.

“Thanks for saving my life,” Jane said quietly.

“Your welcome,” Harry replied.

“Harry, I thought you were back with Tony. What... how did you... you haven't told me everything, have you?” Coulson asked, “You died!”

“Oh, I usually don't mean to die, but hey, I have this saving people thing, and well, it's complicated,” Harry commented sheepishly.

“Are you sure you're okay?” Jane asked, worriedly.

“I'm fine,” Harry assured her.

“Well, it's time to go back to Asgard. I need to have a talk with my brother. Thank you, Harry,” Thor said.

“Be careful with Loki right now, Thor. He's quite unstable now.” Harry told him, and with that, the Asgardians walked over to Jane's van and Thor pulled Jane into his arms and took off into the air. Harry slowly stood up, making sure that nothing needed further healing. He still had a big hole in his shirt, but other then that, his body felt fine. That left Harry with only Coulson next to him.

“Harry, I believe that Nick Fury would like to talk to you,” Coulson asked in a serious manner.

“What about? The Avengers Initiative?” Harry replied.

“How do you...” Coulson sighed.

“I had Jarvis look you guys up and I aided in keeping that investigation secret.”

“Oh, well, let's go back to SHIELD headquarters in New York. Fury asked to see you anyway after I report back,” Coulson said.

“Okay, yeah, I'm interested. You're not going to kill me if I say no, right?” Harry replied.

“No, we don't kill people. We just... keep an eye on them,” Coulson said.

“Well, I'll meet you at Stark Tower, then. You'll need to guide me to the HQ,” Harry commented. _Coulson's seen me die, so I figure I don't need to hide anything from him just now._

 _“_ I'll see you tomorrow, then,” Coulson replied and then proceeded to give Harry directions to SHIELD HQ.

 


	11. Chapter 11

Harry waved goodbye to the agent and promptly apparated all the way to Stark Tower in NY. He landed on what he suspected was a helicopter pad or maybe it was a landing pad for Tony himself in the suit. It was dark out when he arrived, 11pm when he cast a tempus charm.

“ _Hello, sir. It's good to see you.”_

 _“_ Hi Jarvis, is Tony here?”

“ _Yes, he is. Pepper is here too.”_

Harry walked into the penthouse suite and shifted into his lion form in mid walk. Harry followed the tracking charm that he had placed on Tony and padded into the bedroom that he was asleep in. He curled up at the foot of the bed, and promptly fell asleep. Long distance apparition always left him exhausted.

He woke up at around 9:45am Friday morning and went to go shower in the guest bedroom. He had been all tired and dirty when he had arrived in New York last night and he had been too tired to do anything but fall asleep. He wandered out to the kitchen, where Pepper was already sitting down at the table.

“Hi Harry!” Pepper exclaimed.

“Hi!” Harry then went over and grabbed a mug and poured some the leftover coffee. He set his magic to making a couple of eggs and toast for breakfast.

“Jarvis said you got in late last night,” Pepper commented.

“Yep, I just came back from New Mexico, so I was really tired,” Harry replied.

“Yes, that's where Tony said you had gone. Did your trip go okay?” Pepper asked.

“Mostly. I met a god of thunder, and died once. No big deal,” Harry said in a nonchalant manner.

“You died?!!” Pepper shrieked.

“I kind of did? I mean, it wasn't a big deal. But I guess it's a big deal to non-magic folk,” Harry assured her, “I'm fine, though.”

“How did that happen?” Pepper asked.

“I took a beam of fiery destruction meant for one of the scientists back in New Mexico. More of my people saving thing really,” Harry added and then went to scoop up the eggs and toast and put them on a plate and walked back to the table.

“A beam of fiery destruction?”

“Oh, there was this big kind of robot looking thing that was very big that destroyed the town and attempted to kill us, but Thor took it out while I was 'dead,'” Harry said. The wizard started to eat his breakfast while they continued to talk.

 

 

* * *

 

 

After catching up with Pepper, Harry asked her where Tony was and was told that he was in the workshop a couple of floors down. Harry walked and got into the elevator and took it to the R & D part of Stark Tower, which he had never been in before. When the elevator door opened, Harry just stood there in awe of the size of the floor.

“Harry, good to see you again!” Tony said.

Harry started and then got out of the elevator. The Research and Development floor was really huge. It looked like the workshop at the mansion in Malibu, but was five times bigger. It had the usual computers and machinery around and then a big area for all of Tony's suits, which were arrayed in a semi-circle.

“Hey Tony! It's good to see you again!” Harry replied.

“Yep, it is. Could you give me a hand? I need to lift this metal tubing, but I don't want to get into my suit just now,” Tony asked.

“Sure,” Harry commented.

Harry cast a levitation spell on the metal tubing Tony was pointing at and proceeded to raise it a couple of feet.

“Or magic... that works too,” Tony chuckled.

“What are you working on now?” Harry asked.

“I'm going to get this tower to be arc reactor powered.You know, be all clean energy and all...”

“That sounds good.” Harry commented, “Well, I have to get going. I have to meet Coulson at SHIELD HQ in a couple of hours.”

“Oh, you're going to be an agent, huh?” Tony asked.

“No, I think Fury wants me as an Avenger but you still have permission to piss Fury off whenever possible. I know you like to do that.” Harry replied.

“Good. That's one of my hobbies.” Tony said.

Harry apparated back up to the penthouse, said goodbye to Pepper and then went out to the balcony and shifted to his hawk form. He took off and flew, following the directions that Coulson gave him, to SHIELD HQ.

When he finally arrived, it was a normal looking building that took up a whole city block. He landed on the sidewalk in front of it and shifted back, having done a notice-me-not spell right before. Then having taken the spell off, he walked into the secret agent lair.

 

 

* * *

 

 

“We would like you to join the Avengers Initiative, Harry,” Fury said eyeing him, “The Avengers will maintain order. The world is growing and it needs a team to protect it. As I told you, it helped Captain America to defeat Hydra back in World War 2.” Fury had described SHIELD earlier and Harry had taken a tour of the facility. Harry had explained his past, but kept out a few secrets that he wanted to keep, like the immortality. Harry had thought about becoming an Avenger this morning. He would be able to keep an eye on everyone. Plus, he had figured that his skills would be put to better use, he would be like an auror, but not in secret anymore.

“I am not taking anyone's orders, though, but yes, I'll be on your team. I'll work with the other Avengers as a team. Who are the other people that you had in mind for this team?” Harry pointed out.

“We had in mind, Tony Stark, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, Thor, Bruce Banner and we had just found Captain Steve Rogers in the arctic, so him, too. And that's fine, you won't answer to SHIELD. As an Avenger, though, you will have use of our resources,” Fury replied.

“Oh, you found Captain America?! He's alive?” Harry exclaimed.

“Yes, we did, just a couple of days ago. He's being thawed out now, since he was encased in a block of ice,” Fury said.

“I can help with thawing him out. I might be able to do it more gentler than your people can do it,” Harry commented.

“Coulson, would you show him to the lab where the Captain?” Nick asked. Harry started at that and then turned and looked at the door, where Coulson had just entered.

“Yes, sir.”

As the two of them started to walk out the door and walk down to the lab, Harry contemplated his life now. He was now the third official member of the Avengers and had met a god of thunder(who had hopefully been successful with his brother), gotten a deep connection with a god of mischief, met Dr. Banner and Tony Stark, met Natasha Romanoff and seen a master archer in action. He was just about to see and help thaw out one Captain America. Life was again going in a whole different direction than he had planned.


End file.
